As of late, I have been traveling up and down the west coast of the United States exploring job opportunities. I'm ridiculously lucky to have found my into being a computer programmer. The technology world is full of extremely smart people with big ideas who are doing amazing things.

So I've met a lot of people in the last few weeks. Here's the thing: I smile a lot. I'm generally a very happy guy. Almost everyone respond very well to this. People seem to reflexively smile back. Sometimes I'll pass someone while I'm walking down the street and they'll passively say "Hello" as I pass them, even if they don't look at me or make eye contact. It seems effortless; they see me smiling out of the corner of their eye and their mouth enunciates the greeting without conscious effort on their part. Trust me, this doesn't happen if you want around with a sullen, gloomy expression on your face.

Not everyone is completely convinced. Some of the people I have met clearly seem to think that my happy grin is forced. They clearly sense that there is some inner conflict in my head, some inner struggle that's going on, that I haven't yet resolved. That's absolutely true for me. There's a lot of things I haven't figure out yet. I'm confused and uncertain about a lot of things.

But what's special about that? Isn't that true for everyone? I don't smile because I've got all my problems sorted out. It's not an advertisement to the world to insist that I've got a perfect life. I smile precisely because I have a bunch of problems that need sorting out. Sometimes I smile in spite of them. In any case, I relish a challenge, and hope in the face of uncertainty is a better reason to be happy than comfort tempered by finality.

Why do I smile all the time? Because I'm alive. That's reason enough.